Police Helicopter
The Police Helicopter will start appearing at Heat Level 4. As a difficulty by itself, if a player can not find a hiding spot with a roof, the Chopper will still see him and the pursuit will not end. In Need for Speed: Most Wanted and the PS2 and Wii versions of Need for Speed: Undercover during Heat Level 4, the chopper is passive and will just chase you, however in Heat Levels 5, and 6, it will sometimes swoop down and try to hit your car. In the PS3, XBox 360 and PC versions of Undercover they won't swoop down on players like in Most Wanted and Undercover's PS2 and Wii counterparts however more choppers will join in on the chase and help units on the ground get the player. In Need for Speed: Carbon the helicopter isn't present during chases only during cutscenes when the player gets busted by the police and can be added to the player's garage through hex editing and used in Quick Races like in Most Wanted with a special tool called the copter mover. In Most Wanted, Carbon and the PS2 and Wii versions of Undercover the police helicopter is a mix between the AH-1 Cobra, AH-64 Apache and the Jet Ranger while in the PS3, XBox 360 and PC versions of Undercover and the trailer from Need for Speed Hot Pursuit the police helicopter is a Eurocopter AS350 Ecureuil/A-Star with the T-tail of the Hughes 500E. The police helicopter in Need for Speed dates back to Need for Speed: High Stakes in the PC version that would join the cops in chase while in the PSX version it was a bonus car that was unlocked by arresting 10 speeders with the Lamborghini Diablo SV police car or with the cheat code Whirly which disables saving the game. Both the police helicopter in both versions of High Stakes appear to be based on the Hughes/MD 500. Then it returns in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 in the PS2 version as a gunship based on the Hughes/MD 500 like in High Stakes but is a 500D model and its configuration is similar to the 500's military counterpart the AH-6/MH-6. In the Gamecube/Xbox/PC versions of Hot Pursuit II the helicopter is based on the Bell 206B III Jetranger. In the PS2 version the helicopter will fire rockets at the player or other racers and drop barrels that will explode once they hit the ground and sometimes the barrels will also have a spike strip hidden inside of it in a attempt to slash the tires of any car. While the helicopter in the Gamecube/Xbox/PC versions it also has barrels that explode like its PS2 counterpart however unlike its PS2 counterpart it has no rocket launchers or barrels with spike strips hidden inside. The helicopter in Hot Pursuit drops spike strips on the road to stop speeders. Note: After a few minutes the Helicopter will have to break away to refuel, and then come back. Category: Police Vehicles